Maniac Chase | |
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Directed by | Edwin S. Porter |
Distributed by | Edison Manufacturing Company |
Release date |
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Running time | 8 minutes |
Country | United States |
Languages | Silent film English inter-titles |
Maniac Chase is a 1904 American short silent comedy film directed by Edwin S. Porter and produced by the Edison Manufacturing Company. The film is a remake of The Escaped Lunatic, a film directed by Wallace McCutcheon Sr. released at the beginning of 1904. [2] This was one of two Biograph Company hits remade by Edison's company in fall 1904, the other being Personal, which was copied as How a French Nobleman Got a Wife Through the New York Herald Personal Columns . [3]
A man dressed as Napoleon is locked in a cell. After a fight with three male nurses, he breaks the bars of his window and runs away followed by the nurses. After overcoming various obstacles, he comes back to his cell. [2]
This film is an example of the way in which American production companies were filming remakes of successful films by their competitors. In this case, Edwin Porter, for the Edison Manufacturing Company not only copied the plot of The Escaped Lunatic directed by Wallace McCutcheon for the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company at the end of 1903 and released at the beginning of 1904, but also copied most of the shots. This was regarded as an "ethical equivalent" to the earlier practice of "duping", i.e. making illegal copies of films made by other firms, which had been made impossible with the clarification of copyright law through court cases. [4] In this case, the remake was successful because the Biograph Company's practice at the time was to show its films on its own circuit for up to nine months before selling them to other exhibitors; Edison's copy made the popular film available to independent exhibitors. [3]
Porter's film however brings a few new elements, notably more elaborate camera panning in shots 2 and 11, and the use of reverse motion for shot 5 where the characters seem to fly away into a tree. This increases the unreal feeling of the chase and, combined with the fact that when the protagonist comes back to his cell, he finds intact the table that he had previously broken, suggests that the whole chase may have been imagined by the madman. [2]
The film is mentioned by Douglas Gomery and Clara Pafort-Overduin as having contributed to the popularity of comic chase films which made the continuity structure a widespread practice. [5]
The film is composed of 12 shots, 10 of them filmed on location while the first and last one use the same set:
1. A man dressed as Napoleon in a cell. He attacks a male nurse who brings his meal but two more nurses come in and forcefully restrain him. When they have left, he breaks the bars of the window and escapes.
2. A forest path in front of the asylum. The man climbs down the wall and runs away pursued by the nurses. The camera pans left to follow them. As they run across a stream on a log bridge, one of the nurses falls into the water.
3. The pursuit continues on a road.
4. The man hides in a barrel and rolls down a slope but the nurses see him and run after him.
5. The chase continues in a forest. The man jumps in a tree followed by the nurses (filmed in reverse motion). The camera pans to the right to another tree where the man and the comes down.
6. A haystack with a sleeping soldier. The man takes the soldier's gun but he is surrounded by the nurses. He nevertheless manages to escape.
7. The man takes refuge in a house, followed by the nurses. He reappears on top of the roof and slides down still pursued by them.
8. A road. The man hides on the side and the nurses pass by him but they come back and continue the chase.
9. Front view of a bridge. The nurses catch the man and try to restrain him.
10. Side view of the bridge. One of the nurses falls down while the others run on the bridge.
11. Same view as the beginning of shot 2. The man runs towards the asylum and climbs up the window.
12. Same view as shot 1. The man enters his cell through the window. He sits at the table and reads a document. The nurses enter the cell and are flabbergasted to find him there.
The Great Train Robbery is a 1903 American silent film made by Edwin S. Porter for the Edison Manufacturing Company. It follows a gang of outlaws who hold up and rob a steam locomotive at a station in the American West, flee across mountainous terrain, and are finally defeated by a posse of locals. The short film draws on many sources, including a robust existing tradition of Western films, recent European innovations in film technique, the play of the same name by Scott Marble, the popularity of train-themed films, and possibly real-life incidents involving outlaws such as Butch Cassidy.
Edwin Stanton Porter was an American film pioneer, most famous as a producer, director, studio manager and cinematographer with the Edison Manufacturing Company and the Famous Players Film Company. Of over 250 films created by Porter, his most important include What Happened on Twenty-third Street, New York City (1901), Jack and the Beanstalk (1902), Life of an American Fireman (1903), The Great Train Robbery (1903), The European Rest Cure (1904), The Kleptomaniac (1905), Life of a Cowboy (1906), Rescued from an Eagle's Nest (1908), and The Prisoner of Zenda (1913).
Cinematograph or kinematograph is an early term for several types of motion picture film mechanisms. The name was used for movie cameras as well as film projectors, or for complete systems that also provided means to print films.
Edison Studios was an American film production organization, owned by companies controlled by inventor and entrepreneur, Thomas Edison. The studio made close to 1,200 films, as part of the Edison Manufacturing Company (1894–1911) and then Thomas A. Edison, Inc. (1911–1918), until the studio's closing in 1918. Of that number, 54 were feature length, and the remainder were shorts. All of the company's films have fallen into the public domain because they were released before 1928.
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Frederick S. Armitage was an early American motion picture cinematographer and director, working primarily for the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company. Often identified as "F.S. Armitage" in AM&B paperwork, Armitage had a hand in creating more than 400 often very short subjects for AM&B in the days where its films were made as much for the hand-crank operated Mutoscope device as for projection. Several of Armitage's subjects stand out from the company's regular routine of actualities and comic skits in their innovative use of camerawork, superimpositions, time-lapse photography and other effects then new to the art of film-making.
Wallace McCutcheon Sr. was a pioneer cinematographer and director in the early American motion picture industry, working with the American Mutoscope & Biograph, Edison and American Star Film companies. McCutcheon's wealth of credits are often mixed up with the small handful of films directed by his son, Wallace McCutcheon Jr. (1884–1928).
Daniel Boone; or, Pioneer Days in America is a 1907 American silent film directed by Wallace McCutcheon and Edwin S. Porter for the Edison Manufacturing Company. It starred Florence Lawrence, often called "the first movie star."
Kit Carson is one of the earliest Western films, being released by the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company in October 1903. Part of the footage was reused in The Pioneers, another Western short also released by Biograph in October 1903. Both films were shot on location in the Adirondack Mountains of New York.
The Pioneers is an American silent film and one of the earliest Westerns, having been released by the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company in October 1903. It incorporates part of the footage from Kit Carson, another Western short also released by Biograph in October 1903. Both films were shot on location in the Adirondack Mountains of New York.
Meet Me at the Fountain is a 1904 American silent short comedy film written, produced, and directed by Siegmund Lubin. Actors in the movie included Gilbert Sarony, a well-known cross-dressing performer. The film was inspired by Wallace McCutcheon's 1904 film Personal.
The Child Stealers also known as The Kidnapped Child or Child Stealing is a 1904 British silent crime film about kidnapping, directed by William Barker and produced by the Warwick Trading Company.
The Lost Child is a 1904 American short silent comedy film produced by the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company and directed by Wallace McCutcheon, Sr.
The Widow and the Only Man is a 1904 American short silent comedy film produced by the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company and directed by Wallace McCutcheon, Sr.
Trying to Get Arrested is a 1909 American comedy short film directed by D. W. Griffith, produced by the Biograph Company of New York City, and starring John R. Cumpson. Filmed in two days in early 1909 at Palisades Park, New Jersey, it was released in April that year and distributed to theaters on a "split reel", which was a single film reel that included more than one motion picture. The other picture that accompanied this comedy was the Biograph "dramedy" The Road to the Heart.
The White Caps is a 1905 American silent drama film, directed by Wallace McCutcheon and Edwin S. Porter showing how a man abusing his wife is punished by a group of white-hooded men. It is one of the first American films exposing conjugal violence against women and showing the action of vigilante groups.
The Train Wreckers is a 1905 American silent drama film, directed by Edwin S. Porter. In the film, the daughter of a railway switchman and lover of a locomotive engineer defeats outlaws trying to derail a train.
The 'Teddy' Bears is an American silent film directed by Edwin S. Porter and Wallace McCutcheon, and produced by the Edison Manufacturing Company starting as the fairy tale Goldilocks and ending as a political satire of United States President Theodore Roosevelt.
The Trainer's Daughter; or, A Race for Love is an American silent film directed by James Searle Dawley and Edwin S. Porter, and produced by the Edison Manufacturing Company.
How a French Nobleman Got a Wife Through the New York Herald Personal Columns is a 1904 silent comic film directed by Edwin S. Porter for the Edison Manufacturing Company. The film is a remake of the hit film Personal, produced by the Biograph Company earlier in the year. The film is a spoof of the "fashionable marriages" known to take place between cash-strapped European nobility and American heiresses.